Hey folks, Harry here... It's beginning... For the next year you will begin to see George Lucas heavily campaigning and championing a new film technology... It is this Sony/Panavision 24fps HD Camera. The camera is all Sony, but the lenses are all Panavision.
This technology is easily a zillion times more important for film than STAR WARS itself from what I can tell. The below link is to the first installment of the George Lucas HD Propaganda Machine... There will be many many more documentaries and specials and public demonstrations... His goal is to wake up the world and tell them that film is dead. That you should no longer shoot on film, that your film's final color does not have to be in the fate of a batch of chemicals... that you can control it and have it shown exactly as you envision it. It is cheaper, faster and easier. You can shoot with practical lighting, you don't have to load the camera after 15 minutes as the tapes are 50 minutes... and the cost of these tapes are under $100. The contrast and resolution you will find out is superior to film itself. Sound and image are recorded in the same place. And the technology is only going to become better.
There is much much more for you to learn from George... How do I know? Well, I know one of George's disciples...
Robert Rodriguez went to Skywalker Ranch to mix sound on SPY KIDS. While at the Lucas Compound, the guru of digital cinema showed Robert the glory and the vision of Digital Filmmaking... all the tricks, all the advantages... Showed him everything. The results? Robert will most likely never shoot on film again. Robert's reaction? He bought one of the HD cameras and began shooting tests... Then did 35mm and Digital side by side comparisons. Then transferred the Digital to film and the results... Even on 35mm film stock, the Digital shot footage is vastly superior in image quality, color brightness, deep dark blacks... everything... and that's on film, apparently with digital projection, there's another step up... I can't speak towards that yet, as I've only seen Rodriguez's 35 / Digital side by side comparison footage...
At SXSW, Rodriguez demonstrated the technology to an audience filled with filmmakers... and audible gasps were heard throughout. Robert was proclaiming film dead... describing the film footage as, "Looking like someone wiped their ass with it!"
Look for Lucas to use Episode 2 as a springboard for convincing the world of film that a change is coming. Watch for him to work quite hard to win a Best Cinematography Oscar with Episode 2... There is a revolution coming folks... Right now the cameras are expensive... but already the prices are coming down... as demand and innovation continues in terms of size and lightness... prepare to see a RADICAL change in the way film is shot... the price of filmmaking change... and a non-degradation of image through the developing process.
Robert describes it as the way you dream of cinema looking... The way you remember it, not what it actually is.
If you want the smaller sized version of this documentary, goto StarWars.Com if you want the larger version... so you can see the new Star Wars Episode 2 Footage... Click below....
Click here to instantly begin downloading the short documentary!!!
To the Talkbacker below that talks about loving the GRAIN of film... I voiced the same concern to Robert who told me that on Digital... you can emulate ANY LOOK that film has ever had... any stock, any grain... You want a classic Technicolor look? Or say the beauty of the color of TAXI DRIVER... that DR ZHIVAGO look? Or even that stark contrast black & white of NOTLD... Yeah, I griped about the NOTLD special edition, but that's because those apes working the controls on that shitstorm were butchers and kindergarten school fingerpainters... And, for the record... NOTLD SE was not shot digitally or worked on by ANYONE WORTH A CRAP!
